February 15 2007, 13:34

Huge stocks of canned produce in canneries hamper the production planning process for 2007

The production enterprises of Ukraine do not hurry to sign agreements with the farms for raw material supplies in the current season. This situation is primarily predetermined by the uncertainty about the volumes of the future production which have not been planned yet by the canneries in view of the huge stocks left. The sales situation for canned vegetable group remains complicated. The buyers have been showing an extremely low activeness during the whole year. At the same time, in view of the increased prices for energy most enterprises had no possibility to reduce the sales prices for their produce.

The market players forecasted an active demand for the canned fruits and berries; these forecasts have not come true, so the sales situation is not much better for this group of produce. High prices impede the normal sales despite of the fact that the enterprises manufactured quite a smaller number of the canned "sweet" products because of the poor harvest. Only a few number of Western Ukrainian processors afforded reducing the sales prices; the raw materials price for fruits and berries was the lowest in this region past season, and, moreover, the sugar price declined. In all other cases the processors are still unhappy with the sales. The representatives of the processing enterprises said that they faced no problems only selling fruit juices and juice-containing drinks.